The Gates of Hell

Chapter 112: 

The abyss trembled.Not outside.Inside.

The chains holding Rasen didn't break from an enemy's power…They unraveled from his own.

One by one, they loosened.Not because they weakened—Because he devoured them.

His eyes, once flickering with pain, now blazed with a dark, searing light.His hunger wasn't for destruction.It was for freedom.For her.For himself.

—"Sariel…" he whispered from deep within his chest, "…you used me."

The ethereal cross split in half with a deafening crack.And its echo rippled through reality.

The shadows coiled around Sariel flickered—hesitated—as if even they knew what was coming.

And for the first time…Sariel trembled.

"And in the echo of that voice, the memory returned…"

Outside the labyrinth, the searing heat of blue fire swallowed the air like a living storm.The walls, already fractured by unleashed chaos, began to collapse, stone by stone.And in the center of it all: Varek and Sariel, towering like fallen gods in a final reckoning.

Sanathiel and Salomon, still fighting with the fury of dying stars, stepped backwhen Varek raised a single bloodstained hand.

—"Forgive me, White Wolf Brother... but this battle is mine."

His voice carried an otherworldly echo—part grief, part resolve.And with a final glance, Varek launched himself at Sariel once more.

His sword—soaked in immortal blood—pierced Sariel's chest.For a heartbeat, the darkness recoiled.But then, like a wounded beast, it surged again.

Varek, entangled in Sariel's collapse, caught him mid-fall.But the one rising was no longer just Sariel.

"And in the pit where a brother should've stood...a father waited."

Rasen was no longer just himself.Something else stirred inside him—Something ancient, cruel, and awake.

The demon that had long slept within himhad found its door.

—"This... is not Rasen," Varek growled, as the once-blue flames shifted into obsidian black.

Reality trembledas the demon's voice tore through space—deep, guttural, as if spoken from the spine of the abyss.

—"At last… my hour has come."

Varek turned to the others, eyes filled with tears.

—"This place will collapse. GET OUT—NOW!"

"The abyss was not beneath them.It was rising through their blood."

As the ground shattered beneath their feet,Sariel—now fully devoured by the demon—lifted a hand.

And with one cruel thrust,he pierced Varek's chest, reaching his heart.

Immortal blood surged in torrents.

But Varek didn't fall.He smiled—eyes locked on Aisha.

—"I love you, Aisha… Forgive me, Sariel."

With his final breath,Varek drove the blood-soaked sword into the ground, unleashing a wave of blinding energythat hurled everyone toward the exit.

But that wasn't all the blade released.

"The sword didn't only cut flesh…It cut memory."

In that flash of light—They remembered.

➤ Sariel, a laughing child, learning to carve a charm on the bark of a sacred tree.➤ Rasen shielding him from shadow beasts deep in the forbidden forest.➤ Aisha breaking bread under the full moon… their first night of fragile peace.

That was his redemption.

Not death.But memory.

And from the shadows… Skiller emerged.

Faster than thought, faster than mourning—He moved like a cut through the void.

In one breath, he lifted Sanathiel and Aisha.Salomon gathered the wounded Nevri.

—"NOW! We're leaving—this place is falling apart!"

The blue flames twisted into green-black inferno,devouring walls and ceilings like a starving god.

Sanathiel, barely standing, looked back at Varek.Still standing. Still unmoving.

—"Varek…" he whispered,his name a blade across the tongue,his chest boiling with something darker than grief.

But Skiller didn't let him fall.

Aisha, watching all of it unfold—finally understood.

"Rasen is gone.And Varek…will disappear."

—"I won't let you die, White Wolf.Not today."Skiller's grip was steel.

Not a single Nevri howled.Not one beast stirred.As if the forest itself mourned the soul just left behind.

And then... the labyrinth vanished.

Behind them, in one final scream,reality collapsed in fire and shadow.

There was no battlefield.No inferno.Only ash.

Aisha, collapsed in the forest clearing,heard the last echo of Varek's voice in her soul:

—"There's no redemption for me.But for you—live.Live, Aisha."

She fell to her knees.Tears like blades.

—"NO, VAREK! NO!"Her scream tore the silence apart.

Sanathiel, human again,his skin covered in scars,knelt beside her.

He touched her shoulder.

And said—soft, breaking:

—"Today, I lost more than I ever gained…But you stayed.Until the very end."

Above them… the red moon faded.

Not as relief.As a warning.

Sanathiel looked up.Eyes glowing with the light of the moonstone medallion.

—"This isn't over."

And somewhere deep below, far beyond time and breath—

"We will meet again…when she chooses."

🜏

Because demon blood doesn't die.It only sleeps.